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TABASCO, MEXICO, 



OCCASIONED BY 



THE REPORTED DISCOVERY OF REMAINS OF ANCIENT 
CITIES BEING FOUND IN THAT LOCALITY. 



A PAPER READ BEFORE 
THUESDAT EVENING, APEIL 5, 1866, 



S^ 



CHARLES H . HART 



CORRESPONDINa SECRETARY. 



^$C^ 1871 

PHILADELPHIA: • 
HENRY B. ASHMEAD, BOOK AND JOB PRINTER, 

Nos. 1102 AND 1104 Sansom Street. 
1867. 



, H 3^ 



i 






REMARKS ON TABASCO, MEXICO. 



I HAVE no doubt but that other gentlemen present, as well 
as myself, noticed in the daily papers about two weeks since, 
the following paragraph : " Ancient Cities Discovered. The 
Department of State, has received dispatches from our Consul 
at Tabasco, Mexico, dated January 3, 1866, in which he com- 
municated the discovery of the ruins of two ancient cities, 
which have remained unknown since the days of the Conquest. 
The first, he says, from its topography and situation, he is led 
to believe is one occupied by Cortez, at the time of his invasion 
of Tabasco, and is situated about fifteen miles to the west of 
Frontera, a town at the mouth of Tabasco or Grijalva river ; 
the other is situated in the north-eastern portion of the State, 
nearly opposite the present city of Laguna de los Terminos, and 
was known before the Conquest as Xicolanea. The traditions 
connected with it trace its origin to a period at least two hun- 
dred years before the Christian era." 

Having a desire to learn more of these interesting archaeo- 
logical remains for the purpose of laying it before the Society, 
I addressed the Honorable Secretary of State, soliciting a copy 
of the original dispatch, and speedily received a very compli- 
mentary letter in reply, enclosing the desired information. I 
now read it from the oflficial copy. 

United States Commercial Agency, 

Tabasco, January 3, 1866. 

Sir: 

* * * I have to inform the Department, that in my explo- 
rations in this State, I have discovered the ruins of two ancient 
cities, which have remained unnoticed and unknown since the 
days of the Conquest. The first from its situation and the 
topography of the surrounding country, I am led to believe is 
the same that Cortez occupied at the time of his invasion of 



I 



Tabasco. The edifices, though in complete ruins, afi"ord proof 
and incontestible evidence of the vastness and grandeur of the 
ancient capitol of Tabasco, which before tlie Conquest was 
called Ceutla, and is situated about fifteen miles to the west of 
Frontera, a town at the mouth of the Tabasco or Grijalva 
river. The other is situated in the north-eastern part of the 
State, nearly opposite the present city of Laguna de los Ter- 
minos, and was known before the Conquest as Xicolanea, and 
the traditions connected with it, trace its origin to a period 
at least two hundred years before the Christian era. 

I regretted that the condition of my health was such as to 
prevent me from prosecuting investigations which might have 
contributed something illustrative of the history of the ancient 
civilized nations of Mexico. However, the result of my obser 
vations will be given to the world in a work which I design 
publishing during the coming year, on Mexico. I may add 
that the present sites of these cities are the pictures of desola- 
tion, and can with truth be called "howling wildernesses." 

The vast district of country lying between Gautemala and 
Mexico, in the vicinity of the great lake of Pelew-Itsa, has 
never been explored, and now that peace has again blessed our 
country, we might cause the whole to be explored, together 
with the sources of Usumasinta, which here are as great a* 
mystery as the sources of the Nile. 

I remain sir, very respectfully your obedient servant, r 

B. W. Sanders. 

To Hon. Wm. H. Seward, 
Washington City. 

In acknowledging the receipt of the above document, I 
inquired for the postal address of Mr. Sanders, intending to 
correspond with him on the subject, but was informed " that he 
had ceased to be connected with the Department, and that of 
his present whereabouts it was not informed." Thinking it 
might be of interest to the Society to hear something, but little 
it is true, of the locality of these remains and the events hap- 
pening there at the time of the Conquest, I have drawn the 
following account from the old chroniclers. 

Juan de Grijalva, who has the glory of being the first navi- 
gator to set foot on Mexican soil, sailed from St. Jago de Cuba, 
on the fifth of April, 1518, according to Bernal Diaz, although 
by Herrera and De Solis, it was three days later, and Prescott, 



jK "luiiwv-vCi '\\\,t!SJL i-*-^ ^-^ ' ' " 



4 



who gleans it from a MSS. copy of the " Itinerary" of the com- 
mander's chaplain, says it was on the first of the succeeding 
May, in command of a squadron of four vessels fitted out by 
Don Diego Velasquez, Governor of the Island, for the purpose 
of further exploring those countries upon which, the adventurer 
Cordova had been driven in a heavy storm, and which he 
reported to be a land " where the houses were built of lime 
and stone and the inhabitants decently clad ; that they showed 
maize, and possessed gold." 

After having been absent a little more than a month, taking 
■ Diaz, who was of the expedition for my guide, they entered 
the river Tabasco, which was then christened the Grijalva in 
honor of their captain, and held an amicable conference with 
a chief, Avho presented Grijalva " with divers curiosities of 
more workmanship than value," says De Solis, "and plumes 
of various colors, robes of fine cotton, with some figures of ani- 
mals to adorn them, made of gold, thin and light, or curiously 
wrought in wood, set in gold or overlaid with it." Antonio de 
Herrera, and others who follow him, affirms that the Cazique 
presented Grijalva with a suit of armor of fine gold Avith all 
the pieces belonging to it ; that he armed himself completely 
with them, and that they fitted him as Avell as if they had been 
made for him. 

Grijalva having visited various other parts of this new found 
land, and thinking himself successful beyond his most sanguine, 
expectations, returned to Cuba after an absence of nearly six 
months, when he was surprised to find that another and much 
larger armament was being fitted out to follow up his own dis- 
coveries, accounts of Avhich had been received from Alvarado, 
who was dispatched with advices to the Governor. 

This second expedition was placed under the command of 
Hernando Cortez, a Hidalgo, native of Medellin in Estrema- 
dura, born according to the most trustworthy sources in the 
year 1485, although Orellana says " that Cortez came into the 
world the same day that that infernal beast, the false heretic 
Luther entered it," which was two years earlier than I have 
given. He was consequently in his thirty-fourth year when 



6 

this important commission was placed in his hands, and parting 
with all his property, the better to provide for the fleet, he went 
rapidly to work, in order to fit out his squadron with the least 
possible delay, and set sail from St. Jago in the still of the 
night of the 18th November, 1518; directed his course to 
Trinidad and other towns on the Island, for the purpose of 
recruiting volunteers for his ships, and finally on the eighteenth 
day of February, 1519, he weighed anchor and made for the 
coast of Yucatan. Stopping on the way at Cozumel, he arrived 
on the thirteenth of March at the mouth of the Tabasco or 
Grijalva river, and the large ships not being able to pass the 
bar, came to anchor. 

The Spaniards were at once struck with the appearance of 
boats filled with Indians, some armed, and all much superior 
in aspect to those of the Islands. Leaving a sufiicient force 
to guard the ships, Cortez embarked the rest in brigatines and 
small boats with several pieces of artillery, and rowed up the 
river against a strong current. When he had proceeded a lit- 
tle more than half a league, he discovered a large town " Avith 
Louses built of sun-dried bricks, and covered with thatched 
roofs." It was surrounded by a wall of timber, of great 
strength and provided with loopholes, through which arrows, 
stones and darts were discharged in time of Avar. " The com- 
pass," says De Soils, "was round, without any traverses or 
other defences, and at the closing of the circle, the extremity 
of one line covered the other, and formed a narroAV winding 
street, in which were two or three little castles of wood, which 
filled up the passage, and wherein they Avere used to post their 
sentinels ; a sufiicient fortress against the arms of this ncAV 
Avorld, AV'here they Avere happily ignorant of the arts of war, 
and of those methods to attack and defend in Avhich mankind 
have been instructed, either by malice or necessity." 

Accosting some of the canoes through the interpreter 
Aguilar, Cortez requested leave to land for supplies of fresh 
water and provisions, of which they Avere in want, and would pay 
Avell. The boatmen promised to take a message to the town and 
bring an answer. They Avent, and soon returned bringing five 



or six boats "filled with bread, and a few turkeys," which they 
told the Spaniards to accept as a gift. Cortez replied that 
these were entirely inadequate to their wants, on account of 
the number of persons in the large ships below, which they had 
not seen, and he begged they would send word to allow him to 
enter the town and obtain his supplies. Th^ Indians asked 
one night to consider his request, and retired to the town, 
while Cortez went to a small island in the river, where he 
waited till morning for their answer. 

Both parties practiced some deception, the Indians wanting 
the time to carry their eflfects and women and children away 
to the mountains, "and to rally their warriors, while Cortez sent 
for the remainder of his force which had been left in the ves- 
sels, to come up to the island, and caused a search to be made 
in the river for a fording place. Neither side was aware of 
the action of the other. The men came up from the ships, 
and a ford was found within less than half a mile above, where 
the water was only two or three feet deep ; they also discovered 
a thicket of trees, under shelter of which they could approach 
very near the town without being seen. Cortez, on obtaining 
this information, immediately directed his officers, Alonzo de 
Avila and Pedro de Alvarado, with each one hundred men, to 
occupy the woods the same night, so as to be in readiness, on 
hearing a signal, to attack the town on the land side in the 
morning. This place where Avila landed, is called by Diaz 
" Palmares," and approached Tabasco by a very narrow road. 
As soon as it was day, eight canoes, crowded with armed men, 
more numerous than before, came to the island, bringing a very 
small quantity of provisions, saying that they could not fetch 
more as the inhabitants had all fled from fear, and they there- 
fore begged that the Spaniards would take this supply and 
return to sea, and not disturb the peace of the country. The 
interpreter answered that it was shameful to leave them to 
perish with hunger, and that they would soon repent it. They 
replied that they knew them not, and as they had a " fright- 
ful" appearance, they feared to admit them to their houses, 
and if they wanted water they could take it out of the river or 



dig Tvells as. they had to do. Cortez then said that he could 
by no means depart without entering the place and seeing the 
country, for the purpose of giving an account of it to the 
greatest lord of the world, who had sent him there, and that 
they might give him a favorable reception or not, as they 
pleased, for he Vould commend himself to the power of God 
and his own strength. 

The natives retorted that he had better go away and not 
boast in other people's country, and that as to entering the 
town, they would never permit it, and if attempted, would 
destroy them all. Cortez still persisted in his endeavors to 
obtain a friendly reception, but finding it in vain, gave the 
signal for the attack on the land, and he himself at the head 
of tw^o hundred men, approached in boats near the town, when 
he discharged his ordnance and then leaped into the water to 
the knees and began the assault on the walls. The Indians 
fought with desperation, wounding several of their opponents 
with their arrows and darts ; and although terrified at the 
strange noise of the fire-arms, made a courageous resistance, 
and fled not from the defences. But the land force coming 
upon them unawares, entered on the side where it was unde- 
fended ; the Indians seeing this left the river front to defend 
the other part of the town, and in the meantime Cortez entered, 
partially barefooted, having left one of his buskins in the mud, 
and drove the savages before him "up the street to- a second 
barricade, behind which they posted themselves, fronting us 
(the Spaniards) valiantly, whistling and shouting ' al calca- 
chioni,' or 'kill the captain.' " Bernal Diaz continues, "We 
now drove the enemy before us, though they fought manfully 
and never could be made to turn their backs, until they arrived 
at a great enclosed court, where were some large apartments 
and halls, and three houses containing idols. Here they col- 
lected all their effects, but as they were forced to evacuate this 
last post, our general ordered a halt, and that they should be 
pursued no farther." The soldiers searched the place, but 
found nothing but Indian corn, tui keys, some articles of cot- 
ton and a few grains of gold, and Cortez took up his quarters 



9 

in the temples, which were spacious enough to contain all his 
followers. This was the first city taken by force of arras in the 
course of the expedition. 

Peter Martyr, in the De Insulis, gives a glowing picture of 
this Indian capital, the particulars of which he received from 
the old pilot Alaminos, and from two of the officers of Cortez, 
who revisited Spain in the course of that year. He says : 
" Ad fluminis ripam protentum dicunt esse oppidum, quan- 
tum non ausim dicere: mille quingentorum passuum, ait Ala- 
minus nauclerus, et domorum quinque ac viginti millium : 
stringunt alij, ingens tamen fatentur et celebre. Hortis inter- 
secantur domus, quae sunt egregie lapidibus et calee fabrefactse, 
maximd ijidustrid et architectorum arte." 

The following morning Cortez sent out a detachment under 
Alvarado, and another under Francisco de Lugo, to reconnoiter. 
The latter officer had not advanced a league before he learned 
the position of the natives, by their attacking him in such force 
that he was fain to take shelter in a large "stone building," 
where he was closely beseiged, but the first party coming up, 
drove the beseigers off, and the combined forces returned to the 
main body. Cortez learning from a prisoner who had been 
taken that a large body of Indians were encamped on a level 
ground a few miles distant from the city, called the plain of 
Ceutla, determined to attack them the next day, which was 
Lady-day, the twenty-fifth of March. The horses were ordered 
to be landed from the ships, and were assigned to the most 
accomplished horsemen and bravest soldiers, twelve in number, 
whose names are all indelibly recorded on the pages of Diaz, 
who further says, Cortez presented each one with a breastplate 
decorated with bells. 

All the necessary dispositions being made the little army 
heard mass, and then sallied forth for the conflict, the cavalry 
making a lengthy circuit in order to avoid some marshy ground. 
The troops advanced more than a league without descrying the 
enemy, until at length they beheld their dusky lines stretching 
as far as the eye could reach, along the edge of the horizon. 
The Indians had shown some sagacity in the choice of their 



10 

position, and as the weary Spaniards came sloAvly on, encum- 
bered with their heavy mail, the Tabascians sent up their 
hideous yells and discharged volleys of arrows, stones arid 
other missiles, which rattled like hail on the shields and hel- 
mets of the assailants. Many were wounded before they could 
gain the firm ground, where they soon cleared a space for them- 
selves, and opened a heavy fire of artillery and musketry on 
the dense masses of the enemy. Numbers were swept down at 
every discharge, but the bold barbarians far from being dismayed? 
threw up dust and leaves to hide their losses, and sounding 
their war instruments, shot ofi" fresh flights of arrows in return. 
The Spaniards began to fear they had underated their opponents 
to too great a degree, and were just on the verge of retiring, 
when the most distant column of the enemy was seen to be 
agitated and thrown into disorder, and a few moments later 
they heard the welcome shouts of " San Jago and San Pedro." 
The horse had arrived. The savages, terrified at the moun- 
tainous apparition of horse and rider, thinking them one and 
the same, were seized with a panic and fled, leaving the field 
and victory to the invaders. Many prisoners were taken, 
among whom were two chiefs or caziques, whom Cortez treated 
with marked kindness, in order to win them to him. 

The captured natives were much struck by the neighing of 
the horses, and imagining they spoke, inquired of the conquer- 
ors what they said, who replied that they were offended on 
account of their having fought against them. The simple 
Indians thereupon asked the horses their pardon, and gave 
them " roses and turkey bones" to eat. De Solis gives the 
following minute account of the weapons used by the natives 
in this action, which I think well worth transcribing. " Most 
of them wear bows and arrows ; the bow strings were made of 
the sinews of beasts or of thongs of deer skins twisted, and 
their arrows for want of iron were headed with stones ground 
sharp, or fish bones. They used also a kind of dart which 
sometimes they threw, and at others they managed like a pike, 
as occasion reauired. They had likeAvise long swords which 
they used with both hands, as we do our broadswords, made 



11 

of wood, in which they fixed sharp flints. The strongest of 
them had clubs, pointed with flints, and there were slingers 
who threw stones with great force and skill. The defensive 
arms, which were only used by commanders and persons of 
distinction, were quiltings of cotton awkwardly applied before 
the breast, fitted breast-plates, and shields of wood or tortoise 
shell adorned with plates of such metal as they could get, some 
making use of gold as we do iron. They had also music with 
which they animated their soldiers and gave signals, as flutes 
made of great canes, sea shells; and a sort of drum made of the 
trunk of a tree, so hollowed and made thin that they answered 
to the stroke of the stick a very displeasing sound." 

The two captured chiefs after being presented with numer- 
ous trinkets, were persuaded to return to their friends and 
exhort them to come into amicable terms. This mission they 
executed very faithfully, the result of which was that the next 
day the chiefs of the province sent "fifteen slaves" with their 
faces besmeared with black and wretchedly clad, in sign of 
contrition for what had passed. The day following this, thirty 
Indians of rank in habiliments of state, came bearing presents 
and to ask permission to bury their dead, " for fear that they 
would be eaten by the lions and tigers." This being granted 
them, they proceeded " to burn and inter" the bodies. They 
also informed Cortez that on the succeeding day he would 
receive an embassy to treat conclusively of peace. Accordingly 
at the time mentioned, ten native dignitaries, richly dressed, 
arrived with much ceremony. They approached with very great 
submission, and having perfumed him with their vessels of incense, 
in Avhich were burned according to De Solis, gum anime, gum 
copal and other sweet scents, a very usual ceremony, when 
they would express the greatest veneration, they delivered 
their embassy, praying pardon for their past conduct, and 
declaring their good intentions for the future. These embassa- 
dors were followed by a long train of servants, including the 
celebrated slave Marina, so baptized by the Spaniards, who 
finally became the friend and interpreter of Cortez. The next 
(lay an altar was built and a crucifix erected, when the town of 



12 

Tabasco changed its name to that of Santa Maria de la Vitoria, 
and the following morning being Palm Sunday, after hearing 
mass, the entire army re-embarked and set sail for St. Juan de 
Uloa, where they arrived on Holy Thursday. 

This, gentlemen, is a summary drawn from all the sources 
at my command of the doings and actions of the conquerors and 
the conquered, at the place which has just been brought to our 
notice by the vigilance of Mr. Sanders, from whom I trust you 
may all hear soon a much better and more satisfactory account 
by means of the work he promises in the foregoing letter. 



Note. — Tabasco is a south-east state of Mexico, extending 
from latitude 17° to 18° 40' N., longitude 91° 20' to 94° 40' 
W., and is bounded on the north by the Gulf of Mexico, on 
the east by Yucatan, on the south by Chiapas and Guatemala, 
and on the west by the territory of Tehuantepec ; it has an 
area of 15,609 square miles, and a population of about 75,000, 
chiefly Indians. 






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